286: What an iron butt!

The door was pushed open a crack.

Lin Yao poked her little head inside, originally wanting to surprise her older brother.

"Brother?"

She whispered.

In the room, there was only the faint glow emitted when materials condensed and the brief flash when a card took shape.

Lin Yu sat on the sofa with his back to her, not even moving his shoulders.

His entire focus was immersed in the light at his fingertips.

Lin Yao was stunned for a moment.

She saw black bats hovering everywhere in the room, dense and packed, exuding an eerie stillness.

What is he doing?

Preparing to open a bat farm?

She opened her mouth, wanting to ask something more, but seeing Lin Yu's back, which was focused to the extreme, she swallowed her words.

It was a posture... completely isolated from the outside world.

It was as if only he and the work in his hands remained in the entire world.

This state is very difficult to enter, but Lin Yao often saw it in her brother.

She hesitated for a moment, then gently closed the door, without making another sound.

Perhaps he was making some special preparations for the College Entrance Examination.

Thinking this, she turned and left.

...

One day later.

Lin Yao came again.

She carried a plate of cut fruit, thinking that since her brother was working so intensely, he needed to replenish some nutrients.

Pushing open the door.

"Clang."

She didn't hold the fruit plate steady, and it fell to the floor, fruit rolling everywhere.

But she didn't care at all.

The whole room was almost filled with black bats.

Hundreds of bats hovered silently in mid-air, from the floor to the ceiling, dense and packed, forming a silent black cloud.

And in the center of this black cloud, there was only a small patch of open space.

Lin Yu was still sitting there.

Maintaining the exact same posture as yesterday, doing the exact same thing.

In front of him, a new material was condensing.

At his fingertips, a new card was taking shape.

It was as if, in the twenty-four hours from when she left yesterday to now, he hadn't moved for even a single second.

Lin Yao's breathing stopped for a moment.

She subconsciously looked at the clock on the wall, then at the sky outside the window.

Time was flowing normally.

What wasn't normal was her brother!

How could a person... how could he work continuously like a machine without sleep or rest?

Doesn't he need to sleep?

Doesn't he need to rest?

Lin Yao took a few steps forward, wanting to see more clearly.

She saw several empty nutrient solution tubes on the coffee table beside Lin Yu.

Other than that, there was nothing else.

So, he was relying on this to maintain his bodily functions?

A surge of indescribable shock welled up in Lin Yao's heart.

She silently backed out, picked up the fruit from the floor, and then closed the door again.

This time, she didn't leave immediately.

Instead, she leaned against the wall outside the door, remaining motionless for a long time.

...

Another day.

Lin Yao didn't knock; she pushed the door open and entered.

The expected scene appeared again.

It was even more exaggerated than yesterday.

The number of bats in the room was so high that she felt some difficulty breathing.

She couldn't even find a place to step.

Lin Yu's figure was almost swallowed by that black "cloud."

Lin Yao said nothing.

She just stood at the doorway, watching quietly.

Watching the light brighten and fade at her brother's fingertips over and over again.

Watching one new bat after another join that silent legion.

Time passed minute by minute.

One hour.

Two hours.

Lin Yao's legs were numb from standing, but the person in the room remained in the same posture.

Precise, efficient, and tireless.

Finally unable to hold back, she walked back to the living room and pulled up the surveillance footage of the hallway from the past few days.

The footage fast-forwarded.

She saw her own figure when she came the first day.

She saw her own figure when she came the second day.

And in all the time she hadn't come, that door had never been opened once.

In the footage, there was only the passage of time and the alternation of light and dark.

And the person in that room seemed to have become a statue.

Except for two times in between when he got up to go to the bathroom and drank two tubes of medicine, the whole process taking no more than five minutes, he spent all the remaining time working.

Working.

Working!

Lin Yao turned off the surveillance, her whole body leaning weakly against the sofa.

A chill rose from the depths of her heart.

She finally understood.

She completely understood.

Damn, her brother's strength really didn't come from luck!

Whatever about awakening a heaven-defying profession, whatever about obtaining some great fortuitous encounter... perhaps those existed.

But that was definitely not all!

The true core was this almost masochistic madness before her eyes!

This terrifying will that squeezed himself like a machine!

She suddenly thought of the past five years.

Everyone thought Lin Yu had given up on himself, become a loser in the family, hiding in a dark factory outside, refusing to see people.

Could it be...

That during those five years, he spent every day, every hour, every minute like this?

As soon as this thought emerged, Lin Yao felt her scalp tingle.

It was too terrifying...

This was truly too terrifying!

What kind of resilient nerves, what kind of terrifying obsession would it take to endure that kind of boundless monotony and loneliness?

What an iron butt...

Ah, no!

It was an iron-like, formidable will!

Lin Yao couldn't sit still anymore.

She stood up abruptly, and an unprecedented fighting spirit burned in her chest.

She had always thought she was working hard enough.

But compared to her brother, her little bit of effort was simply like a child's play.

She turned and walked quickly toward her training room.

She also had to become stronger!

She must become stronger!

She absolutely could not be left too far behind by her brother!

Inside the room.

Lin Yu didn't know what kind of mental journey his sister had experienced.

In his world, there were only cards, materials, and the constantly increasing number of bats.

When the last material was used up.

When the last [Growth] card merged into the prototype.

The entire room fell into absolute silence.

Thousands of black bats, like the most loyal guards, surrounded him in the center.

Lin Yu slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.

He stood up and stretched his somewhat stiff neck.

"Crack."

The crisp sound of bones was exceptionally clear in the deathly silent room.

He raised his hand and waved it gently.

Hum!

All the bats, as if having received a silent command, instantly turned into streams of light and surged into a storage ring in his palm.

"It should be enough. For the remaining time, there are still things to deal with."

Although he had firmed up his current choice and found the path he wanted to take, Lin Yang also hadn't forgotten the action he was currently carrying out.

This time, going to meet Li Mo, Wang Qingxuan, Old Ghost, and the others, besides checking the composition of the potion research team, he also needed to estimate the time required to research a potion capable of breaking through the attribute limit.

It would be best to produce an experimental prototype within these few days.